The LAN cable with the virus trapped inside ready to be sent to labs for further testing.

Damascus, Syria — A Syrian IT specialist working in Bank of Damascus (BoD) reported Monday that he caught a vicious network virus as it was circulating through the bank's network.

According to the local IT team, the bank's central database that keeps the basic information of clients' accounts was showing signs of abnormal activity since the morning, most of the employees thought it was because of the international banking crisis but Hameed, the IT specialist, knew it was a virus infiltrating the system and therefore he waited for the weird "transferring" window to finish, then he ran quickly and snapped the LAN cable from the back of the server quickly twisting the ends to keep the virus from escaping. He then put the infected cable in a protective plastic bag.

The bank officials said that they are willing to send the infected cable to Europe so they can identify the virus. The bank also had to replace the LAN cable with a new one that was thoroughly washed to ensure it's virus-free - the process took around 2 hours causing the bank losses around 2 million dollars, a sum the officials said is "manageable" considering the amount of losses they would have if the virus hadn't been caught.

In an unrelated event the bank also had to transfer the sum of 4.7 million dollars to a Chinese bank for a customer in China going by the name of Chang Tziuh who decided to close down his account in the Syrian bank, the bank board holds no record of Tziuh's opening the account but "it was on the system and therefore we have to pay it" says the bank director, "we're just glad to see a happy Chinese customer".